Review: Sindhu, Marlow

A rambling old Victorian pub-hotel on the banks of the Thames at Marlow called “The Compleat Angler” is an odd venue for modern Indian cooking, but that’s where Sindhu is – one of Atul Kolchar’s growing crop of restaurants in the Thames Valley. We came for a mid-week lunch and we decided on the lunch menu, a very reasonable £25 for three courses.

For starters there was chicken tikka nicely blackened from the tandoor, two chunks on a plate with a teaspoon of green relish. My starter was a nice bit of partridge fried in a tangy curry and served on a small round paratha. Others had a trio of tandoor chicken, lamb sheek and prawn, all warmly spiced and well grilled.

Mains were served classic curry style: a dish of meat-in-gravy with rice and dal for the table. The monkfish in a milder tomato curry was deemed good. My lamb in a Chettinad curry was fine, a warming and earthy curry gravy although the lamb wasn’t as tender as I’d have liked. The only oddity about this lunch menu was just how resolutely meaty it was. If you are offered a “three course menu for £25” that feels like it ought to be all-in, but (we realised after everything arrived) if we actually wanted to balance all the meat with some veggies, we really ought to have ordered some of the sides from the a la carte menu! Saving the dal and a tiny bit of diced salad with the chicken starter, the entire meal was meat n carb.

Luckily there was a very nicely executed apple tarte tatin for pudding! Definitely the best choice, even if it gave no nods to the Indian cuisine. The rasmalai that I tried was a light and tasty end, with a lovely saffron flavour in the milk (but I envied the tarte eaters!).

For £25 each, this was a very sound meal in a lovely setting. If I returned, I’d get some vegetable sides.